Damir Gainutdinov: 'The road from social media posts to a penal colony [...] is a well-trodden path now. Anyone who disagrees with the authorities, has their own opinions, and is ready to defend them on the internet, can end up following this path.'

"It’s no coincidence that in March of this year, Sergey Zhukovsky, head of the department at the prosecutor’s office in St. Petersburg for oversight of the legality of the state security apparatus’s activities, and enforcement of law on combating extremism, gave the following statement, which instantly became a catchphrase: 'Every citizen must realize today that one careless post can ruin their entire life.' According to the Agora International Human Rights Group, since the beginning of this year Andrei Bubeev (Tver), Hussein Makhauri (Sochi), Igor Stenin (Astrakhan) and Maxim Kormelitsky (Berdsk) have been sentenced. Twenty-three users were deprived of their liberty for sharing their opinions and for their internet activity in 2015. Twenty-one of them received real sentences, and two were given so-called involuntary commitment. In other words, they were sent to a mental hospital, which is de facto also a deprivation of liberty. [...] The road from social media posts to a penal colony via compulsory de-virtualization – which seemed outrageous and impossible only a few years ago – is a well-trodden path now, having affected dozens of lives. And anyone who disagrees with the authorities, has their own opinions, and is ready to defend them on the internet, can end up following this path.'

Source:

Damir Gainutdinov, From social media to the slammer, Intersection, 3 June 2016